Moulin Rouge, Histoires de Parfums: my best perfume 2010

I am not a person of details, I do not care about details. I tend to think rather in big pictures. Also in perfumery I think often in philosophical, social, cultural or human terms. That's my blog all about. I don't write reviews because practically I am unable to do it. Or I have too many doubts about my own opinions and preferences. But in the end nothing is more refreshing than to write a review. To concentrate on the beauty of a single creation.

I already disclosed my passion for Histoires de Parfums scents. There is no one to not like or to be indifferent, I am excited about all of them. They smell just good on me. Still, it took me a while to try the last ones, the Tuberose Trilogy and Moulin Rouge. I am not the first to notice that they received bit if not at all attention (that's strange altogether).
If I could put in words what I like so much about Histoires des Parfums is that they have a great base. That's something which makes for me one of the big differences in perfumes. The base, the last word, the thing which stays with you hours after the first encounter. That's the art of big perfumers, to give you something which you can love to the end. That's for me the difference between Jacques Guerlain and Jean Paul Guerlain and why I don't believe in a universal Guerlinade base. There is nothing like that after Jacques Guerlain creations no matter the efforts.

Somehow Histoires de Parfums took pride in that. The base. I'm writing this 6 hours after I applied Moulin Rouge on my wrist and the typing movements bring around clouds of a wonderful smell, something you want to smell like whenever, early in the morning, after many hours of a party, while working at your office. A wonderful smell. Probably it is the talent of a chef Gérald Ghislain that he did that and he knew how to do it. I am not a gourmand. But I rather prefer eat seldom and when I do it eat something really good, which leaves a great taste long after was eaten.

Moulin Rouge opens sexy but not loud. There are the fruits (plumes and peaches in a lost lush way, reminds me of Femme Rochas) and some bubble gum accent. After a while it smells like a one million dollar bucks baby, that rose which I wanted to be L'Arte di Gucci for me. It was not because it's too much 80', too straight in your face. But Moulin Rouge is. A dark and powdery rose. It still keeps some from fruits and brings additionally a bit of almonds and iris. And it ends up forever with a musky vanilic base, not even one artificial tone, which still keeps some rose and fruits in it.

For me, Moulin Rouge is the perfume of 2010. There is nothing more attractive than it, I make no efforts to like it completely. I don't need to explain it to myself too much. It just comes compelling and I feel wonderful with it.

My only story about Moulin Rouge: I was young, my first year as a student, in a pub with my then boyfriend we met a middle aged man, an university professor. He was slightly drunk and he told us the story of him and Anca, the girl he was in love with years before, at Moulin Rouge. They went to Paris and to Moulin Rouge and there were all these beautiful shining women, not only on the stage but all over. There were so many beautiful women in one place. But he was in love with Anca and in fact he didn't really watch all these beauties. He didn't have too many memories of them. Because he was in love with Anca. Paris and Moulin Rouge were all about Anca.

Recently I ordered in same pack samples of Moulin Rouge, Traversee du Bosphor, Rubj and Bois Blonde. All of them stunning but I'm in love with Moulin Rouge. No discussion, a matter of taste.

I still didn't try the Tuberose Trilogy. Tuberoses is not my stuff (as rose never was) so I can wait. But who knows what Histoires de Parfums has to offer me there.

Histoires de Parfums

What it struck me first at Histoires de Parfums was how effortlessly modern they are. No, I don't want to make a cheap pun here. Now it doesn't matter the name of the company. I just found myself thinking, yes, this is how all these modern mainstream perfumes thrown on the market everyday should smell. These are modern perfumes. And I say that, my most beloved perfumes are between 85 and over 100 years old. But if it was to be new, modern, that would be.

First of all, they smell like perfume. You put them on, any of them (didn't try though the last ones, Moulin Rouge and Tubereuses) and you smell of good perfume. You don't go for experiments, innovation. You don't go for classic either. It's nothing too less or too much. You smell like a lady with a good perfume on.
Secondly, they don't smell artificial. I understand that most of perfumes use synthetic ingredients. I also understand that there are huge differences between the quality of these synthetic ingredients, as goes for natural ones, too. While in most of the new perfumes I can detect immediately the artificial, the plastic notes, or be bothered by bad quality of naturals (like jasmine sometimes) Histoires de Parfums avoids that in all their perfumes. Either I found them be my taste or not, it was not one of them to feel like washing it up because I can't stand it.

And most important, Histoires de Parfums smell like modern which can become classic. They don't smell like big innovation, it's rather that they take what is new and make it real perfume, more complex, wearable, easy, elegant, warm on skin. And they don't yell. For me this is what Jacques Guerlain would have liked today. For tomorrow, too.

And now coming to the outer appearance, all the image concept is great. I like the name and I like the packaging. I would love to have a boutique and sell these sophisticated bottles. I prefer them around ten thousand more then By Kilian, for example, which I wouldn't dare to offer as a gift to anyone.

PS I try Histores de Parfums now and then. Today, still being in my spring hunting for a proper perfume, I tried Collete, 1873. I was hooked by the smell on the skin, on the paper keeps the grapefruit for too long and dominant. And few minutes ago I went to Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez' 'Guide' and what I read: '1873 runs a close second' after 'Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune which is the most successful fragrance ever built around (…) grapefruit peel'. AND!!! `the basic structure is a beautiful orange-blossom oriental that shares something with L'Heure Bleue'. I knew it! My beloved L'Heure Bleue.